PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Soul are heading into this week’s match-up against the Cleveland Gladiators looking for their third consecutive win of the season. For the Gladiators, it’s been a rough start to the season as they’ve lost their first three games by an average of 22 points.
Last week was special for Philadelphia Soul head coach Clint Dolezel, as he was announced as one of the members of the Arena Football Hall of Fame Class of 2012. Dolezel, in his first season as head coach of the Soul, is 13-8 as head coach (13-9 overall). Steve Thorn is the head coach for the Cleveland Gladiators. He is 49-77 (51-80 overall) throughout his nine-year coaching career. These two teams split their two meetings last season with the road team winning each contest.
“We’ve been watching film, and Cleveland is definitely not a 0-3 team,” explained Soul head coach Clint Dolezel. “I think they are as good as we are, we’re going to have our hands full in this match-up. The key to winning this game is taking care of the ball. We haven’t done a good job so far this season in doing that; luckily our defense has been playing well. Both sides of the ball are going to need to come out this week for us to win this game.”
The Soul enter the game 2-1 on the season, having defeated the Iowa Barnstormers 54-43 last week and now hold a two-game lead in the East Division. Cleveland is coming off their bye week after starting the season 0-3. Philadelphia’s strength has been their stout defense, which is No. 1 in rush defense (7.0), No. 4 in pass defense (230.7) and No. 2 in total defense at (237.7). The Soul’s running game has also been one of their strengths, led by Derrick Ross, who ranks No. 3 in the entire league in rushing yards per game (29.3).
Philadelphia will look to take advantage of the Cleveland’s porous defense that ranks No. 12 in pass defense (307.7) and last in rush defense (33.3) and scoring defense (67.3). Since the beginning of last season, Philadelphia has allowed quarterback Dan Raudabaugh to be sacked just six times. This has allowed their offense to average 7.2 yards per play, No. 3 in the league this season. Raudabaugh ranks No. 3 in completion percentage (69.1) and No. 6 in total offensive yards per game (281.0).
Cleveland has an opportunity to win by creating turnovers against Philadelphia. The Soul rank No. 12 in turnover margin (-5) and have turned the ball over nine times in three games. However, the Soul have forced eight stops on downs to make up for the turnover deficit. The Gladiators rank No. 5 in rushing offense (20.3) and are tied for No. 3 with seven rushing touchdowns. Should Philadelphia turn the ball over in the red zone, Cleveland will look to capitalize with their red zone offense that ranks No. 4 in the league (87.5%).
This match-up comes down to Philadelphia’s defense shutting down Cleveland’s offense. If Philadelphia’s defense maintains their high level of play, it will be tough for Cleveland unless the Soul start to turn the ball over.
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